Our Rating:

93.4%

Read More – Full TorFX Review:

Is TorFX Reliable?

Company Size:

Tor Currency Exchange LTD. was founded in 2004. The company is growing steadily in Australia and the UK, demonstrating annual turnover of over £1.2 billion. The company boasts over 50,000 active clients and manages to serve them well, earning it one of the best reputations of any money transfer company.

TorFX holds no debt and enjoys a perfect Level 1 credit rating by Dun & Bradstreet. TorFX has more than 100 employees and is the largest independent employer in Penzance. With excellent service offered to clients all around the world, TorFX is may be becoming the best company to consider for your next international currency transfer.

Tor’s strongest point is its staff. The company’s UK branch is based in Cornwall. Unique surroundings and a supportive working environment have created a high staff retention rate and have resulted in the company winning the Cornwall Business Award for Best Employer.

Regulated By:

Financial Conduct Authority (UK), ASIC (Australia).

Awards:

TorFX has won several prestigious industry awards, attesting to the quality of the business, and the services provided to clients:

TorFX is growing fast, but that doesn’t mean that the customer experience is suffering. The company knows how to build integrity, always maintaining and improving the core service that has fuelled its meteoric rise.

Credibility Rating

It must be noted that TorFX was accused of links with Crown Currency Exchange which collapsed and left clients unhappy. The accusations led to a journalistic overview by Tony Levene from the Guardian, which discovered the two were separate companies with the same seed funding, and the FCA which researched the allegations maintained TorFX on its authorised status. It has been almost 7 years since these allegations were raised and there has been no testimony towards any misconduct on TorFX’s behalf since then.

Do Clients Like TorFX?

Research:

With over 1,500 reviews on TrustPilot, and more than 150 reviews on ReviewCentre, two of the most popular client reviews in the UK, there are more TorFX client reviews online than almost any Foreign Exchange firm in existence.

The rating on these two platforms is astonishing: 9.5 / 10 on TrustPilot, and 4.6 /5 on ReviewCentre. That means that well over 95% of clients who submitted their reviews recommend TorFX’s services.

We have also collected right about 15 client experiences on our site. Just over 2 thirds were satisfied clients, while 5 of them made complaints (one of which was amended and the comment was removed at that client’s request).

Since the reviews are so positive, it took us a while to find complaints. The ones we did find were as follows:

Specific times where the online system was down

Specific scenarios where money didn’t arrive where it was supposed to arrive

Excessive margins and “honeymoon rates”

Conclusion:

When we look at the vast majority of the complaints we have collected, they make little sense. The fact that the online system was down or inaccessible to one person, on one specific date, doesn’t mean much. The same goes for complaints about money sent to the wrong destinations; this is one isolated incident, and we don’t know what happened behind the scenes.

The few complaints that gave us concern were clients who responded on our website, but we’re talking about 4 private cases out of thousands of online testimonials.

Overall, from everything we read, TorFX’s service is nothing short of exemplary.

TorFX’s Exchange Rate & Fees

Research:

Fees: No fees on international transfers at all.

TorFX Exchange Rates: With the website’s new design it’s easier than ever to receive a free quote. Just go to the website and enter your email, telephone number, name, and the amounts you want to transfer. You will receive a quote based on these figures directly to your email.

As with other commercial money transfer companies – quotes are flexible. The more you transfer, the lower the rate.

If we look at some of the testimonials, we can read about savings of 2-4% in exchange rates. That means saving 2-4% of the gross total funds exchanged, and represents an incredible savings, especially on larger transfers.

Limits: The minimum transfer amount is £100 which means small remittance payments are definitely possible using their online platform. You can transfer £2,000 and up over the phone, and between £50 and £25,000 using the online service.

Conclusion:

TorFX’s clients are extremely happy with TorFX’s exchange rates that were provided to them in 99% of the cases. There are no fees. The firm will help individuals and businesses save money compared to banks. The only downside is a rather high minimum transfer.

Exchange Rates & Fees Rating

Global Reach & Service

Research:

Dedicated Dealer: Yes.

Offices: UK, Australia.

Ways to Approach: Email form on the site, Call back form on the site, and International phone number,

Translations: Spanish and German online platforms.

Accepts Clients: Globally.

Currencies Handled: 59

Client Reviews: Extremely happy with all aspects of service.

Conclusion:

TorFX is not the most localised foreign exchange firm in the world, with a single office in the UK and a single office in Australia, but it makes up for that with a large team of 100+ dedicated dealers, and 24/7 international phone numbers.

The company handles clients from across the globe as well as the vast majority of currencies in existence. Its 59 currencies handled is almost double the “standard amount” offered by most money transfer firms.

Requesting a call-back and signing up is very easy and intuitive with the new TorFX website. The site was revamped in the late 2015, and is now far more intuitive and adapted to more devices. Over the years TorFX has been recognised for its first-class customer service on a number of occasions, with the company recently winning International Money Transfer Provider of the Year and overall Best Customer Service at the 2016 Consumer Moneyfacts Awards.

Global Reach Score

Additional Functionalities

Personal:

Market Orders.

Rate Watch.

Limit Orders.

Forward Contracts.

Assistance in opening bank accounts abroad in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.

Repatriation of funds as a result of selling overseas properties, including checks.

Regular transfers.

A superb payment system that includes multiple payments.

Businesses:

Risk management service for businesses.

Daily updates on the market.

TorFX offers quite a complete offering of FX options and payment options. The unique value proposition it offers that others don’t is the assistance with opening foreign bank accounts. TorFX’s assistance can save a lot of hassle and money and is highly recommended for immigration and expatriation purposes.

Level of advocacy: The company’s dedicated team of currency experts contributes 350+ years of total experience in managing the diverse foreign exchange requirements of both corporate and private clients.

Additionally, the firm also offers up-to-date currency updates on its blog, which was chosen as a top currency blog on our Currency Blog Awards page. All registered clients will receive daily updates by email.

App:

Unlike the previous design of the site, the new design is mobile friendly and very easy to navigate on mobile.

A money transfer app is now available only for UK and Australian clients and only for Android.

Conclusion:

It’s a vanilla offering when it comes to limit orders and forwards, very similar to other companies, but the business risk management team, and the assistance with opening foreign bank accounts, makes TorFX a cut above the average foreign exchange firm.

Special Features Score

Review Summary

Credibility Score - 91%

91%

Client Feedback - 98%

98%

Fees, Exchange Rates - 92%

92%

Global Reach, Availability, Service - 91%

91%

Added Values - 90%

90%

Bottom Line

TorFX is a client-oriented firm with a particular focus on service and accessibility. The website is clear and coherent, the sign up process is speedy, and above all - the quality of staff is great. TorFX' dedicated dealers team includes of veteran who have been with Tor for years.

37 comments

Transferred money from France to the UK. I felt the service is beyond my expectations, and the dedicated staff was helpful. When I compared their quote with what the banks have offered me, it proved to be money saving.

Hi
I spoke to somebody regarding transferring money to the USA, unfortunately i can not find the contact details. Could you please quote me the rate for transferring $3024 to a bank in the USA.
A.Berry

Hey Anthony, we at moneytransfercomparison would be happy to assist you, but we’re not the ones you should address. You could click on “Get Free Quote” to get to TorFX’s website, and fill in your details to get a callback. Please do let us know if TorFX helped you transfer at affordable rates, and how much you liked the service. Other company reviews are readily available on our website.

I ve used torfx twice in the last 7 years
sent £48,000 to germany and their rate was £700 better than barclays
send £39,000 to dubai and £350 better than Coutts

so when i needed to send £37,000 to eire in euros, they seem the natural choice

Funds would be there the same day

made the transfer, but foolishly never asked for a rate to do where i was and time constraints on my part.

Next day my customer phoned up to query non receipt of funds and also the exchange rate..

Torfx gave me 1.354

when i phoned to query they said todays rate was 1.34, an online broker was quoting 1.373 and i phoned my own bank who quoted 1.363

and also said that yesterday their rate never dropped below 1.36!!

i asked them why the funds hadn’t been received in Eire and was never given a reply

asked what happened to the bank beating rates advertised on their website
reply was if your bank is prepared to do a transaction for virtually no profit what should we better them when we only made £500 from your transaction
eventually offered me £175 if i remove my review from their website

i said i wasn’t that cheap and would rather leave it there if it stopped someone else from doing a deal with them.

This is something that happens quite often – currency firms are giving clients “honeymoon rates” for their first transfer or two, which are lower than the usually rates, and then if the client is not haggling, they widen their spread. We did not expect it from a great company like TorFX which has so many positive reviews. Not only from clients but also within the money transfer affiliation industry. We will be sure to ask them about it, and if we’ll gather more evidence this is something they normally do, it will affect their rating on our website.

In their defense we can say that making GBP500 on a 37,000 transfer represents a markup of just below 1.5%. Definitely not a good markup, but not every different from the markup you’ll get with other companies without speaking to them and negotiating. This markup is usually represent a saving of at least 30% in comparison to banks, that won’t go below the 2% mark so easy for an individual.

It must also be stated that for the time being we are keeping our review with the same rating and level of recommendation, but of course keeping this comment live and seeking for similar cases on forums, client rating platforms, or via speaking directly with clients. Thanks for the time you took to compile your review and I’m hoping my reply was satisfactory.

I have used TorFx to trnafer money to my son in New Zealand and I have found they are the most competitive, reliable and committed to the schedule.
Most importantly their customer service peronnels are in Australia and provide an excellent top of the class service .

I had a quote from Torfx for a large transaction over 100k. Foolishly I checked with other currency companies and found I could get far better rates.
I told Torfx that I could get better elsewhere and would not be using them, they advised the verbal agreement with them is legally binding and i have no choice.
I am very annoyed as I have used them several times and on this occasion I feel I have been completely shafted. They made no efforts to resolve the matter just threats of legal action if i do not go ahead with the transaction.

Richard, thank you so much for your feedback.
Very disappointing to hear the quote was sub-par in comparison to other companies, and that did not try to make amends with you.

I would like to clarify a bit more about how the money transfer process works to explain what I believe happened here.

A large percentage of the bigger trades (100,000) are sealed over the phone. As they told you, if you give any transfer a go verbally, it is 100% legally binding.
The reason is that the transfer gets into process immediately after your confirmation , before you have funded it, even. In order for TorFX or any other company to stay profitable, they need to either have large foreign currency reserves, or buy the currency on-the-spot from the bank, on the current interbank spot-price rate. If they WAIT until you funded the transfer, the rates could go against them, and their income would be extremely volatile. It will also open up a window of opportunities for the client to fund the transfer whenever the rate is optimal (for him) within these 3-5 days … So, TorFX, as any other company on the market, executes trades promptly after they have been confirmed via telephone.

The thing is that confirming a trade should be a very clear process. The dealer should ask you directly whether you want to execute for this price. It’s a VERY different thing from being quoted to a certain price. You can ask the trader to play a recording on the conversation to you, and it is reasonable to believe you have indeed confirmed it… Tor Currency have been in the business for eternities, they are very experienced and (seemingly) very professional.

How to avoid such mishaps in the future?

1. Be cautious during phone conversations and avoid confirming trades you are not 100% positive about.
2. Ask for the trader to apply the rates on the online system and that you would confirm it there whenever you like it (he will apply the MARGIN that was agreed with you, so the quote will change with the currency fluctuations).
3. When you speak to the dealer over the phone with the hope of haggling the price down, tell him you are shopping around! and that you are looking for a rate that you can compare to money transfer company X.

I would be extremely pleased if you could supply some additional data about your case:

— Was it communicated to you when you spoke to the dealer that confirming the quote verbally is legally binding?
— Would you say that they used any pushy selling tactics when they quoted you?
— What’s the quote you were offered with, and what was the official rate at the moment.
— Which other companies have you been in contact with, and how much did they quote you (and what was the official rate at the moment).

Normally, I would have approached my contact at these companies to ask them to chime in and resolve the issue, but verbal agreements are a very sensitive topic and no company would give you any slack about them, unless you are confident you have not approved the trade.

Hope this will prove to be helpful. We appreciate your feedback very much, and if we will hear repeating complaints about this topic with TorFX we shall downgrade their score, plain and simple.

dreadful service unhelpful account manger unresponsive the website crashed several times scary when they are dealing with your money..decided to use transferwise much better and worked quickly and with good customer care.. avoid tor fx bit like a dart board hit or miss!!

Micheal thank you so much for your feedback. That’s upsetting to hear. So far the reviews of TorFX have been glowingly positive and your comment and the one above it are the first really negative comments we heard about the company. We would be extremely pleased if you could provide more details about the transaction, who is the account manager who was assigned to you, and any other concrete detail we can use to approach TorFX and ask them about it.

Obviously it is difficult for us to weigh in 2 negative responses about Tor Currency in comparison to hundreds of positive ones you can discover online, so we really want to delve into it and speak to them directly.

I transfer funds quite frequently, usually in the order of $12-$20K per contract, and have used other FX firms previously.

I have made just a single transfer with TORFX, and found that the spread is far more favorable than other providers, although this could be a function of a “honeymoon” rate. I have found that funds transferred through TORFX do seem take longer to reach the beneficiary than other FX companies.

I have found the customer service to be excellent, and I especially like having a dedicated account manager rather than whoever happens to be sitting at the trading desk.

All in all, I would use them again, and would recommend them based on the favorable spread. Due to the slightly longer time to transfer, they do require a bit of planning, and I probably wouldn’t want to send time sensitive payments using this platform.

Thank you for your feedback HL. Truly detailed and helpful.
We believe that the rates will remain favorable, based on our experience.
If you see that the spread is widening for some reason, you can always call them up and discuss that.

The payment’s timing to reach its destination really depends on when you sent it (which day, and what time), and between which countries.
Based on our experience with them, it should not take more than 24h between a trade is funded, to the time it should reach its destination.
According to what we know – since all FX companies rely on banks to make the actual payments, their timing is somewhat similar.
In fact, all the large foreign exchange companies use the exact same banking partners. If your experience says otherwise please let us know.

I’ve executed a number of further trades with TorFX both online and via telephone. Their spread remains highly favorable.

I’m still experiencing some volatility in the length of time funds reach beneficiary accounts. As you said sometimes it’s around a day, and sometimes as long as 3 business days – perhaps a quirk of time zones and when receiving banks do their batching?

Thank you Clive for your feedback. We have been referring clients over to TorFX for some time and we have never witnessed a 5% margin with any deal.
Not even smallish deals using very exotic currencies. We would like to verify your claim with TorFX. Could you add your details here as a comment or contact us via the About Us page? That would be very much appreciated. We definitely aim to feature the best companies and reading through hundreds of feedbacks and testing the platform ourselves, we have concluded TorFX offer excellent margins.

Does Torfx extend its services to Nigeria , one of the African countries ? When I went through the countries you are operating, I couldn’t locate my country Nigeria . In your reply, let me know if I can transfer money from USA to my account in Nigeria .

Hi Ayodele, I am afraid they do not send money to Nigeria. Sorry! Nigeria is very problematic, as you probably know. Most companies do not wish to handle this country due to the high amounts of fraud. You can try Azimo and other more remittances oriented services who do handle NGN. Cheers.

Had an account with them some time but only used it sporadically for small sums in past years. Then made one large transaction recently and quickly realised that the firm had taken great strides on procedures and building customer confidence. I was helped with advice all the way by Adam including discussions on exchange rate trends and got the confidence that he was always on the ball. Made the transfer and the money was in my account the next day. Absolute reliable confidence-inspiring service. Recommended.

Thank you for your valuable feedback. From our experience with TorFX they are very prompt. When was the transfer actually funded? Was it booked on Nov 1 but funded later on? That can explain it.
Also, please bear in mind Philippines usually take longer than destinations like Europe, North America or Australia because of higher risk/fraud associated with the region.

The “same-day” receiving will depend on the timing in which you booked the transfer and funded it, and time differences between UK and India.
If you have booked the transfer and funded it instantly (say via debit card, if it a small online transfer via TorFX) at time where both UK and Indians banks are open,
you may receive it on the same day (but you need to call them up and ask them).

Currency transfer services like TorFX aren’t speed-oriented, Toshi. It’s all about the saving.

TorFX promised they would beat bank rate but in reality I ended up paying more. Italian bank charges 1% and TorFX promised to charge 0.5% spread on a €200k transaction. Transferred EUR into TorFX client account and to my surprise TorFX quoted rate with a 2% spread vs market rate. A complete rip off. This was just after the elections on 8th June and to avoid further market volatility I reluctantly agreed to convert at a worse rate of 2% charge than having to send EUR back to Italian bank and resend back to UK via the Italian bank.

Queried why 0.5% was quoted and 2% was charged. TorFX response -“market has been extremely volatile over the past few days primarily due to political uncertainties and we have been quoting the best rates that we can from the market”. Clearly not answering the question. When prompted that I’m not querying the market rate but the spread ToX quoted (0.5%) and charged (2%). No explanations.

I am in contact with Mr. Elezi and speaking to industry expert to understand whether TorFX have actually done something which is morally wrong or that the market volatility that day indeed forced them to widen their margin. What I can say for now is that I believe TorFX have not breached any contract, because the deal wasn’t booked until Mr. Elezi’s confirmation of it based on a 2% margin.

Be careful. I joined Torfx because I wanted to transfer my savings from NZ to Philippines. I just started a new job here and I didn’t want to lose money in the currency exchange doing the transfer directly through my bank. ISSUE 1 – The agent didn’t send me a quote or gave me an estimate about what was the exchange rate. In XE.com NZ$ to PHP was at 1 to 37.74 and they gave me 36.73. If I would have known this was the exchange rate I would have done the transfer directly to my bank in Philippines. Too bad for me to trust them that they were doing better than that. ISSUE 2 – The Agent didn’t advise me that if you transfer more than a certain amount it is a “High Risk Transaction” due to money laundry policies so your money will be put “on hold” until you proof that you didn’t get your money illegally. So I had to proof them sending my bank statements that I got my savings working legally but really it was a hustle because I had to explain every thing in the statement. Bad customer experience again. I thought they had their own way of checking that instead of asking me. ISSUE 3 – They called me several times to verify my bank details, amount, etc.. but every time they called me I had to verify my data birth etc.. It was annoying after the first time. ISSUE 4 – Timing was an issue as I had to wait 10 days until I got all the things verified and my transaction got submitted to my bank in Philippines. ISSUE 5 – As I really need my saving to pay my expenses here and there was a lot of delay I asked if they could just send my money back to my NZ bank and they told me that there is a fee for doing that. Great response. At least you could say sorry for not telling you all of these issues when you want to transfer money and apologize. Not a good experience but I haven’t tried any other exchange company so hope not all of them are like this one and communicate clearly all the important things that the customer should know before transferring the funds to them.

Thank you for your comment. Some of the issues you raised will be shared with every other regulated broker. For instance having to verify your DOB each time you are giving orders on the phone – this is just to protect your own data. They are obligated to follow a certain identification procedure (required by law, that is). Same goes for their requirements to get identification proofs for Anti Money Laundering Laws. Again, to comply with the law they have to go through those specific procedures, else why would they make it more difficult for you to initiate a transfer? Same procedures over at XE.com (which is a HiFX white label).

Regarding the rates – are you certain you have compared the rates correctly at exactly the same time? Rates tend to fluctuate, so if there has been a few hours in between there could be errors. In any case we will look into it. Cheers.

Alfonso Salazar –
I read the comments made by him.
There are rules against money laundering.
Can’t this issue be sorted out before the customer makes commitments? i.e.Checking the documentary evidence by TORFX for source of funds?

Hi John Smith, could you provide more details about your transfer? The reason I am asking this is because we have encountered several companies who trash about their competitors pretending to be clients and we want to be certain that it is indeed a valid complaint. Anything you would say and want removed from the public message will be removed, just provide some additional details to us so we can understand you are indeed a client who used TorFX. Additionally, the compliance team of any company (including TorFX) can delay a transfer for either just or unjust reasons, at the end of the day they report to higher authorities (view our page about AML). If we had more details we could have voiced our opinion and/or transfer that complaint over to TorFX to hear what they have to say about it.

I used Torfx recently to transfer a total of around 60,000Euro – the main contact at Torfx (James) was very helpful and would have given a better rate if I transferred the full amount in one go with him but after comparing Torfxs on-line rates I decided to transfer in 10,000Euro chunks as I was unsure of the risk to the total amount if the company was to collapse during the short period that my money was in their account (typically a few hours in my case). Being prudent, I initially transferred a tester amount of 200Euro to make sure bank details and process went OK as I was new to this company. The rates offered were excellent compared to the standard bank rates and better than offered by the bank ‘exchange trader’. Once I had done the first ‘tester’ amount my confidence in how it worked increased significantly. I would recommend Torfx based on my experience.

Hello Joe, and thank you for your comprehensive and well-written review. We concur with your conclusions. We also appreciate your cautious approach, we believe it is indeed the best way around dealing with financial providers (even if in TorFX’s case the client accounts are segregated, meaning that if they go out of business, it will not have any impact on the money you sent them to fund a transfer). Thanks!

I found the customer service to be less than helpful. Once they get you signed up you have to keep chasing them with any queries you have as they won’t answer emails in a timely manner. This was frustrating because I had a limited time window to get my account up and running to transfer funds from Japan. As a new customer I did have a few questions as a lot of money was involved by our standards, but maybe for them only the really big fish get the best customer service.

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